Minneapolis Knitting Works

These are postcards advertising babies' underwear made by Minneapolis Knitting Works. These have verses based on well-known nursery rhymes: Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe; Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat; Jack and Jill; and Pat a Cake, Pat a Cake. There were also cards with Ba! Ba! Black Sheep and Mary Had a Little Lamb. The verses start out with the usual lines and end with something about the Minneapolis Knitting Works "M" products, for example:

Pat a cake, pat a cake, Baker's Man,
Bake me a cake as fast as you can.
Pat it and roll it and mark it "M.B."
Which stands for "M" Band for
Babies, you see.

Minneapolis Knitting Works began as the St. Paul Knitting Works. In 1891 St. Paul Knitting Works moved to Minneapolis and was reincorporated as Minneapolis Knitting Works. The company was located at 620-708 Bryant Avenue North for a long time.

The classified ad shown below is from a July 1920 Minneapolis Tribune and mentions a "new factory." The ad seems unusually long and makes the company sound like a great place to work. Among other things, it says: "In fact you will just smile away the hours, thinking of the good wages receive for such pleasant work, and go home happy and cheerful each day."

There are a number of old Minneapolis Knitting Works magazine ads shown on the web. One of my favorites is a colorful undated Halloween ad shown here. The latest ad that I saw was from 1953 and lists a Utica, New York address for the company instead of the Minneapolis address.

An article in the Utica Daily Press in January, 1952 announced that the manufacturing operations of the Minneapolis Knitting Works were to be transferred to Utica. The Minneapolis mill was described as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Utica Knitting Company. The Minneapolis line of children's and infants' garments was to supplement the Utica company's adult line. At that time, the Minneapolis label was not being replaced by the Utica label, and the Minneapolis comapny's offices were to remain in Minneapolis. The Minnesota Historical Society has a 1952 photo of the Minneapolis building here.

Taiwan Postage Stamps

The postcard shown above is a handmade one sent to me by a Taiwanese Postcrossing member. Those are real postage stamps, still on paper, that are glued to a piece of cardboard and mailed as a postcard. Below are the stamps from the back of the card that were used to mail it--click to enlarge.

I managed to identify most, but not all, of the stamps on the internet. (It probably would have been easier to go to the library and look in a stamp catalog.)

On the front, the stamp in the top left corner is a Norwegian Forest Cat from a 2006 series of pets. Below that is a bird (Dendrocitta formosae) issued in 2008 in a “Birds of Taiwan” definitive stamp series. The flower below that is a Hibiscus sabdariffa issued in 2009 in a definitive flower series. The stamp in the top right corner is a stamp from a lighthouse series of 1991. In the bottom right corner is a pair of stamps showing the Paphiopedilum sp. from a definitive series of orchids of Taiwan issued in 2007.

On the back are two stamps that were part of a souvenir sheet based on Disney’s animated movie“Finding Nemo.” This was issued to stimulate interest in philately among youths. You can see the souvenir sheet here. There is also another bird (Dicrurus aeneus) from the 2008 "Birds of Taiwan" series.

If you look closely at the stamps, you will see that some are labeled "Republic of China", some "Taiwan," and some "Republic of China (Taiwan)." In 2007 stamps began to be labeled "Taiwan" instead of "Republic of China."

I am participating in Sunday Stamps at Viridian's Postcard Blog

Children of Marken, Holland

The Sepia Saturday 97 prompt photo is a group of young Irish boys lined up in rows for the camera. Above I am showing the front and back of a postcard picturing a group of children of Marken, Holland. Dutch children were a popular subject on postcards of the early twentieth century. This particular postcard has advertising on the back for Droste's Cocoa and Hillman's Grocery Department in downtown Chicago. Hillman's is gone, but Droste's Cocoa currently is distributed in more than 60 countries.

Near the top of the message area are the words "From the Frou-FrouFolks." The Frou-Frou-Folks are not what one would expect from the dictionary definition of frou-frou. The word frou-frou here refers to Frou-Frou wafers, which are thin wafer sandwich-like cookies filled with vanilla creme. They are of Dutch origin and are less sweet than American made vanilla wafers. Below is an enlargement of the Frou-Frou wafer logo from the back of the postcard.

Marken is a peninsula in the IJsselmeer (an artificial lake) in the Netherlands. It is an island, which nowadays is connected to the North Holland mainland by a causeway/dike. It was formerly a fishing village before it was cut off from the sea. It is now a tourist attraction known for its characteristic wooden houses and traditional costumes.

Below are some more circa 1900 pictures of Marken children from the Library of Congress.

Visit Sepia Saturday for More Vintage Photos

New Fall Hats - 1930s Style

This advertisement for fall hats from a "Big Hat Store" in downtown Minneapolis was printed on a government postal card and mailed September 14, 1936.

Many of the women's hats of the 1930s could be described as pert or perky and were worn at a jaunty angle. The style shown on the card seems typical of hats of the 1930s, fitting relatively close to the head and tilted to the side so that one eye and one ear were concealed.

Women needed hats in the 1930s in order to be considered properly dressed. Buying a new hat would have lifted their spirits in the midst of the depression. However, the $1.88 price that seems cheap today would have been equivalent to nearly $30 in 2011 dollars (DollarTimes Inflation Calculator).

Chinese Panda Stamps

Sporting

Climbing

Panda and Bamboo

Little Partners

Above is a set of four maximum cards from the People's Republic of China with panda postage stamps that were issued on May 24, 1985. The backs of the postcards have titles in both Chinese and English. I believe that the artist for this series of stamps was Han Meilin.

Another Chinese artist who created panda stamps was Wu Zuoren. From Wikipedia:

1963: Wu Zuoren sets out to change the face of China when presented with the opportunity to design a three postage stamps for the People's Republic of China. Known for his ink paintings of yaks and camels in western China Wu Zuoren's Giant Panda stamps first issued in 1963 establish the Giant Panda as the emblem of the new China. A second series of six Giant Panda stamps by Wu Zouren was issued in 1973, and a more elaborate Giant Panda edition based on his ink paintings produced in 1985.

Wu Zuoren's 1985 edition seems to be something in a different style than the drawings on my maximum cards.

1963 Panda Stamps
http://www.cpi.com.cn/cpi-eng/oldstamp/img/s59.jpg



1973 Panda Stamps
http://stampstory.blogspot.com/2008/12/giant-panda.html

China Philatelic Information

I am participating in Sunday Stamps at Viridian's Postcard Blog

KP Duty - Peeling Potatoes

For Sepia Saturday 96, I have some WWII era military comic postcards featuring KP duty peeling potatoes. The first postcard was "furnished for convenience of men in the armed services by the Idaho State Department of Agriculture, Boise, Idaho." The state of Idaho is linked with potato production in the United States, and it produces one of the largest yearly crops.

The potatoes shown on the Idaho postcard are large and have an elongated shape. Although many varieties of potato are grown in Idaho, the Russet Burbank potato is the most common. Russet Burbanks have an elongated shape with rough skin and few eyes. If you have had much experience peeling potatoes, you know that large potatoes with few eyes are the easiest type to peel.

K.P. is the abbreviation for "kitchen police" or "kitchen patrol." KP duty is tedious routine kitchen work, not including cooking, assigned to junior U.S. enlisted military personnel. Images of enlisted soldiers peeling potatoes were once associated with the popular culture image of KP duty due to its frequent appearance in mid-twentieth century movies and comic strips about life in the service for Americans. (source: Wikipedia)

The first video at the end of this post is titled Recalling KP Duty & Kitchen Hell and is by a man recalling his KP experiences in the military. The second video is a humorous musical film made in 1942 about KP in the Army: Soundie - $21.00 A Day, Once A Month.

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A Study From Nature

The title on this postcard is "A Study From Nature, Twin Cities, Minn.," but it is impossible to tell where the scene really is. The card has a 1911 Minneapolis postmark.

I really can identify with this postcard because I have painted (or tried to paint) similar scenes. My attempts at plein air painting have been awful. I do have an acrylic painting of a similar scene, based on one of my fall photos, that turned out fairly well. This scene reminds of the types of scenes Impressionists painted, and I may try to use the postcard as a basis for a painting of my own.